


Set it Free

by Bookkbaby



Series: Happy Anniversary [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 18:01:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1149113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bookkbaby/pseuds/Bookkbaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's their anniversary, and Dean is trying not to worry over his gift to Cas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Set it Free

> "If you love something, set it free; if it comes back it's yours, if it doesn't, it never was.” -- Richard Bach

This had been a bad idea. Not just bad;  _terrible_.

Dean paced, trying not to look at the little black box he’d placed on the desk. His ring was inside, a match to the one he’d included in his gift for Cas that morning.

The ring he’d given to Cas that morning… alongside his Grace.

Dean was trying desperately not to regret the decision. A large, selfish part of him had wanted to keep the deceptively harmless-looking vial in the storage room. No one but Dean had known where it was and the amount of protection surrounding the bunker meant that it would be perfectly safe there, indefinitely.

And without it, Cas couldn’t leave.

Dean felt like an asshole just for thinking it, but without his wings, Cas was grounded. He couldn’t fly away and leave Dean behind, staring at empty space. Dean could actually fall asleep next to him and count on him being there when he woke up. He could keep Cas with him. He could keep this for the rest of his life. (The idea should have been terrifying. It wasn’t.)

But… he wanted that to be Cas’s decision too. Scratch that, he  _needed_  Cas to want this too.

 

He couldn’t keep Cas trapped here, even if the thought of Cas disappearing on him for days or weeks or hell, even  _months_  at a time made him feel ill. Dean couldn’t be the kind of person who would willingly imprison those he claimed to love.

This had to be Cas’s choice.

That, more than anything else, was why Dean hadn’t done the traditional thing and proposed on a bended knee. He couldn’t have nonchalantly sat back and watched Cas open the gift. He couldn’t have kept his mouth shut while Cas looked at the Grace and the ring and made his decision.

Dean knew that he would try to plead his case. He would have asked Cas to stay, to choose him, to put off becoming an angel again because Dean needed him.

Cas would have done it, Dean knew. With Dean in front of him, Cas could not have refused Dean anything.

Dean needed to give him the chance to.

It hadn’t been difficult to convince Sam to vacate the bunker for the day.

A few suggestive eyebrow waggles and musing out loud about his shopping list (whipped cream, apple pie filling, strawberries, and of course, lube and condoms) had Sam practically running for the hills, Kevin in tow. They’d be back tomorrow, but for now it was just Dean and Cas.

The wait was excruciating.

Dean kept pacing, trying not to imagine what Cas was thinking or doing right now. The seconds dragged on into what felt like hours, but the clock told him it had barely been twenty minutes since Cas had left their bedroom. Dean had been watching from down the hall, waiting for Cas to leave so he could sneak back into their bedroom and await Cas’s choice.

It shouldn’t be long now.

The door creaked open.

Dean stilled, hardly daring to breathe. Cas walked in, the smile on his face wide and bright. Dean managed a weak grin in reply, eyes flicking down to Cas’s left hand.

Cas was moving, crossing the room in a few long strides and then grabbing Dean’s face with his hands to pull him in for a thorough, passionate kiss. Dean could feel something cool and hard against his cheek.

The ring.

What felt like thousands of pounds of tension suddenly evaporated.

Dean relaxed into the kiss, overwhelmed with relief and enthusiastically kissing Cas back. He grabbed Cas’s hips and pulled him in closer, his body already heating up at the thought of  _his ring_  on Cas’s finger.

Still, there was one thought burning in the back of his mind.

"Your Grace?" he blurted, unable to help himself. Cas pulled back.

"On the table," he said. "We can find a safe place for it later."

Later.

Dean’s breathing shuddered in his chest and his eyes watered. He squeezed them shut and kissed Cas again, heart soaring.

Cas was  _staying_.

Cas chuckled lowly and returned the kiss with equal fervor. He dropped his grip on Dean’s face to grab Dean’s left hand. Cas gently removed the hand from his hip, bringing it up and running his thumb over the ring finger.

"Do you have one?" he asked. Dean nodded, reluctantly breaking the kiss again.

"Yeah, but I didn’t… I didn’t want to assume," he said. Cas smiled.

"This would have been a safe assumption," he said lightly. He pressed a chaste kiss to Dean’s lips, taking away any possible sting from the words. "Put yours on?"

Cas sounds so hopeful, so excited, and Dean’s wanted to be able to wear the ring proudly for weeks. Turning away from Cas is a hardship, but he does it just long enough to snatch the ring box from the desk and, with shaking hands, opens it.

"Let me," Cas says in his ear. His body is a line of heat against Dean’s back as he plucks the open box from Dean’s hands and eases the ring out of its soft bed. He shuts the box and places it back on the desk.

Dean turns to face him. Their bodies slot together perfectly. Hardly daring to breathe, Dean offers Cas his left hand. Cas slides the ring on and something  _finally_  settles in Dean as Cas stills, holding Dean’s hand.

Their matching rings shine up at them and Dean is overwhelmed.

"Happy anniversary, Cas," Dean says thickly. Cas squeezes his hand again.

"Happy anniversary, Dean."

**Author's Note:**

> Realized I keep forgetting to mention this, but I've got a Tumblr too!
> 
> Feel free to follow me at bookkbaby.tumblr.com~! (I have a lot more fic there. ^_^)


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